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Archive for November 25th, 2014
China’s Lake Ebinur Is Shrinking Dramatically, NASA Image Shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 25th, 2014
Yale Environment 360: As this NASA satellite image shows, Lake Ebinur, located in northwestern China near the border of Kazakhstan, has shrunk by 50 percent since 1955 as a result of development, agriculture, and natural fluctuations in precipitation. The lake’s saline water is light blue, and the dried lake bed appears white due to salts and other minerals that have been left behind as the water evaporates. Lake Ebinur sits at the bottom of a drainage basin with no outlet, and is surrounded by mountains, farms, and settlements....
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Tea Party-Controlled Legislature Pushes ‘Industry-Driven’ Great Lakes Water Withdrawal Bill
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on November 25th, 2014
EcoWatch: The Ohio legislature, dominated by a Tea Party-controlled Republican supermajority, often seems to be creating more problems than it solves. And it could be creating a problem with international ramifications. In its lame duck session, the chamber passed HB 490 last week, a water quality bill which alters standards for withdrawing water from Lake Erie and its tributaries, and sent it to the state Senate, where it’s expected to pass.
The omnibus bill contains some good things, such as new restrictions...
How oil ate the heart of North Dakota
Posted by Grist: None Given on November 25th, 2014
Grist: Nothing completes a quiet morning drinking coffee and reading the paper like a multi-part investigative saga of pollution and the fracking boom in North Dakota, and boy howdy, did The New York Times deliver this weekend. In the two-part series, investigative reporter Deborah Sontag brings up one example after another of ways that pollution in North Dakota is on the rise.
There`s the old filling station filled with illegally dumped and radioactive oil filter socks. There`s the train crash that...
Neither Rain Nor Snow Nor Heat Sways Views on Climate Science
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 25th, 2014
LA Times: Think that people in upstate New York will more strongly believe climate change is upon us after an early November blizzard dumped 7 feet of snow, which then was turned to slush by spring-like temperatures? Think again.
Freaky seasons and drastic weather anomalies do little to convince most people that climate change is real - political ideology does much more, according to a study published online Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The study found that people who saw the winter of...
Fast-Warming Arctic Proves Deadly Animals & People
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 25th, 2014
ClimateWire: Migration and feeding is difficult for local reindeer during a critical time of year, as their vegetation food source became encapsulated in ice.
In the winter of 2012, the Svalbard archipelago was hit with an extreme weather event of record-breaking heat and rain--a slush avalanche knocked out bridges and roads. Reindeer carcasses littered the landscape, as permafrost warmed and snow-dependent tourism took a major hit.
Now, a group of scientists documenting the aftermath of the two-week event...
Water War Amid Brazil Drought Leads to Fight Over Puddles
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 25th, 2014
Bloomberg: Brazil’s Jaguari reservoir has fallen to its lowest level ever, laying bare measurement posts that jut from exposed earth like a line of dominoes. The nation’s two biggest cities are fighting for what little water is left.
Sao Paulo state leaders want to tap Jaguari, which feeds Rio de Janeiro’s main source. Rio state officials say they shouldn’t suffer for others’ mismanagement. Supreme Court judges have summoned the parties to Brasilia for a mediation session this week.
The standoff in a...
Australian Foreign Minister says reef not in danger but what do her own scientists say?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 25th, 2014
Guardian: Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop should apologise for claiming the Great Barrier Reef is “not in danger” from climate change, according to enough scientific evidence to form a small coral atoll.
Sorry. Too glib?
When the minister representing Australia at the next major United Nations climate change negotiations appears unwilling to accept the advice of her own government science and reef management agencies, then it’s time to worry.
Indeed, one of the world’s leading marine biologists...